Youth summer activities — 1995
The spring and summer of 1995 were quite eventful relative to my influence on the youth programs in our ward. I recruited 12 members of our ward to go to Varsity Scout Woodbadge at Camp Tracy in March and April. I was the Course Director and having so many members of my ward on the course made it doubly wonderful. I have chronicled the details of this great experience elsewhere in my journal. In June, I arranged for our youth to go rappelling up Little Cottonwood Canyon, with two wonderful and trusted instructors. We had a spectacular experience and our youth talked about it for weeks. Some of the advisors remarked that this was the best activity our youth had ever done. The reasons I like rappelling as a youth activity so much are these: 1) the youth experience first-hand the importance of LISTENING to instructions and being OBEDIENT to counsel. The consequences of inattention or noncompliance are immediate and unsettling. 2) it is an activity where all the youth cheer for and applaud each other; you never hear negative or incisive comments, but only supportive and encouraging comments 3) everyone is a winner; the youth literally glow with pride and confidence as they reach the bottom of the cliff 4) the youth never forget the experience of facing an extraordinary challenge and even frightening situation, and having the fortitude to overcome the fear and accomplish a difficult task. All of these reasons and experiences make rappelling an activity the youth reflect on for many months.
We also had a very successful ON-TARGET experience, which involved all of our youth and most of their parents. Prior to the actual day of On-Target, we had all the youth and their parents come to the church to make reflecting mirrors and learn how to use them. We had a large crowd, and everyone seemed excited and supportive. On our actual On Target day (July 15), all the youth left from the chapel at 8:00 am and drove to Butterfield Peak. We had about 30 youth, all with mirrors. We immediately began making visual contacts. I had a great time with my ham radio, contacting other hams on peaks with Scout groups. At 10:00 all the parents of our youth met at a location in our ward and we signaled them. A ward member was there with his ham radio; we had great fun. We also had a mountain-top experience with a talented and spiritual member of our ward giving a great talk on communication. We also had all the parents write a letter to their youth, and we surprised the youth with these letters just after our ward member finished her talk. It was a memorable morning.
Our Varsity and Explorer scouts spent 3 fun-filled days at Flaming Gorge in July. We had beautiful weather, and our boys got along well with each other. We had some wonderful Dutch oven meals (cooked by yours truly), a wonderful night looking at the stars and planets, and many hours of great fun on the lake. One of the highlights of the trip was a rappelling rope we set up that went off an 80-foot cliff and ended about 15 feet above the lake surface. Most of the descent was dead-drop, and it was really exciting to reach the end of the rope and let go. We had a meaningful testimony campfire on the last night, and I felt like we accomplished much in the way of unity and closeness with our boys.
Click here to return to the Personal Life Journal index